fallout from the right. will romney's campaign be able to recover? we'll discuss that this morning. plus there's a new cartoon of the prophet muhammad released this morning. the world is now bracing for angry protests as a result. will we see more violence? and today is the day the space shuttle "endeavour" begins its final journey to its new home. we'll bring you liftoff live from kennedy space center this morning. we have a packed show for you. virginia governor bob mcdonnell is going to be our guest, the winkle voss twins of facebook fame. indy car champion ryan hunterreay and musician wyclef jean is going to join us. it's september 19th, also known as my birthday and "starting point" begins right now. a little music from wyclef because he'll be talking to us about his new book. our starting point this morning is mitt romney who's trying to put that latest controversy in the rear view mirror, if you

will. he's not making any apologies for what he said at a secretly taped fund-raiser. nearly half of all americans are dependent on government assistance and will support president obama no matter what. here's what he said. >> my job is not to worry about those people. i'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. >> the former governor may not have apologized for what he said but he did apologize for how he said it. >> i recognize that those people who are not paying income tax are going to say, gosh, this -- this provision that mitt keeps talking about, lowering income taxes, that's not going to be real attractive to them. and those that are dependent upon government, and those that think government's job is to redistribute, i'm not going to get them. >> former governor takes his clarification one step further in an op-ed in "usa today" this morning. he says this. the dreamers and the entrepreneurs, not government, built this economy, and they can once again make it strong. my course for the american economy will encourage private investment, and personal

freedom. instead of creating a web of dependency, i will pursue policies that grow our economy, and lift americans out of poverty. meanwhile, president obama reacting to the former governor's remarks in an appearance with david letterman last night. here's what he said. >> one of the things i've learned as president is you represent the entire country, and when i meet republicans, as i'm traveling around the country, they are hard-working, family people who care deeply about this country. my expectation is is that if you want to be president you got to work for everybody, not just for some. >> in just a few minutes we're going to be talking with virginia's governor bob mcdonnell a romney campaign surrogate. first a look at some of the stories making news today. john berman has that. >> good morning and happy birthday. >> thank you. love my birthday. >> very tense moments this morning overseas for the u.s. ambassador to china gary locke. locke's official car surrounded

by a group of about 50 protesters outside the u.s. embassy in beijing. some of them throwing cups at the vehicle. and jumping all over it. the car was damaged but the ambassador was not hurt. chinese security guards were able to step in and protect him. chicago public schools will finally be in session this morning for some 350,000 students. the teachers union voted yesterday to end its seven-day walkout. teachers and support staff still have to ratify the new deal which chicago mayor rahm emanuel calls an honest compromise. >> the issue is we cannot get a perfect contract. there's no such thing as a contract that would make all of us happy. and we're realistic about that. >> karen lewis, the president of the teachers union, had accused the mayor of trying to bully members back to work. more americans say they are optimistic about the economy and the direction of the country, and that's helping spark something of a spike in the polls for president obama. take a look at the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll. the president opening a five-point lead over mitt romney

among likely voters. that survey was taken after the two conventions but just before the gop's challenger's controversial 47% comments were released this week. the president might also be making some gains in key swing states. the latest cbs/"new york times"/quinnipiac poll has president obama ahead of mitt romney 51% to 45% in wisconsin. that's paul ryan's home state. in virginia the president has a four-point lead over the challengers 50-46%. and in colorado, essentially a tie, the president with a one-point edge, 48% to 47%. cleanup under way this morning after a line of powerful storms struck alone the east coast. high winds and heavy rain left tens of thousands of people without power from virginia to washington, d.c. in new york there were tornado watches across a number of states. as much as nine inches, nine inches of rain fell in some areas. a federal judge has cleared the way for police in arizona to enforce the most controversial part of this new immigration law. u.s. district judge susan bolton tuesday upheld the section that

allows police to question a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. back in june the supreme court tossed out most other aspects of the law, but let the so-called show me your papers provision stand. and we are just moments away from the final flight of space shuttle "endeavour." you are looking at live pictures at the kennedy space center in cape canaveral in florida, after 25 trips into orbit over two decades, "endeavour" is about to lift off for the last time. it will be taking a three-day, cross-country tour on the back of a nasa carrier jet. endeavor scheduled to arrive in los angeles on friday where it will be on display at a science museum. nasa officials have been champing at the bit to get "endeavour" off the ground. the final flight has been delayed for two days by bad weather. did we mention it was your birthday today? >> yes, what a nice birthday present if "endeavour" does take off as we sit here and monitor "endeavour" as it waits. should be taking off momentarily. you mentioned the weather, that has been a problem over the last couple of days. obviously the weather forecast looks really good.

not just visually looks like in florida it's going to be something like 80-something degrees. for florida, relatively clear, which means that "endeavour" should be table to take off. we're going to continue to monitor it and come back to you as soon as it starts. looks like it's starting to roll down. i can't tell. >> turn off your cell phones. you know, it's rolling down the runway. >> is the camera moving or is it a very slow roll to taxi? we're expecting it to take off in about nine minutes or so. we'll get that to you as soon as it actually happens. >> it's such a great picture. let's talk politics, shall we? mitt romney and congressman ryan are both on the road today, both in separate swing states, trying to sell voters on their platform. this was supposed to be the week in which the romney campaign would reset its strategy, give more details about policy, and plans, instead, though, they've had to spend a lot of the week defending remarks that were heard hon a secret recording. republican governor bob mcdonnell from virginia is a romney supporter. he's also the chairman of the republican governor's

association. it's nice to see you again, sir. thanks for talking with us. appreciate it. >> thanks, soledad. thanks for working on your birthday. >> you know. hmm, thank you. appreciate that one more time so my bosses can hear that, sir. just teasing you. this is supposed to be the campaign relaunch. i know a lot of what you're here to do is to talk about spending, and to talk about debt, and reframe the romney/ryan plan. so let's talk about the plan for reducing spending. what exactly is it? give me the specifics. >> i don't think there's any reframing to do. this is what governor romney's been talking about for six months in making his case that the obama record of 8% unemployment, 43 months, and a debt of $16 trillion is just unacceptable, that he can do better. so he's laid out, i think, a very clear five-point plan for the middle class with increased trade, more workforce development, investing in young people, investing in small business to help the entrepreneurs grow. reducing the national debt, and

promoting american energy. that's something that president obama continues to, i think, undermine. we just got an announcement yesterday, 1200 coal jobs in virginia, west virginia, surrounding area gone, mainly because of obama regulations. and so, this is his idea. it's a detailed plan of five items that he thinks he can get done that will get people back to work. 43 million people unemployed is not acceptable. >> when you go through the details, though, i think a lot of people who are on both the left and the right frankly are critical of a lack of specifics. let's walk through some of these. he says in this five-point plan it requires spending cuts of approximately $500 billion per year in 2016, assuming robust economic recovery, 4% annual growth, and the reverse -- reversal of the obama era defense cuts, which he calls irresponsible. but when you add up what follows on the romney website, it

doesn't come anywhere close to $500 billion. and i'm wondering where do you see the specific money coming from? i mean give me the details outside of just supporting students or helping students. what will you cut? paul ryan, as you well know, in his budget said he was going to cut income security programs for the poor, like food stamps, by 16%. will you take that idea? is that part of the plan? >> i think what you need is courage and honesty with the people and say, listen, everybody that's getting -- every item in the -- in the budget has got to be cut some. including defense. but don't balance it half on defense. that's not responsible. look, all i can tell you is what i did in virginia, we have a $6 billion budget deficit. we cut that by not raising taxes, and now we've got a billion dollar plus surplus. and so i know it can be done. >> but they're looking for $500 million. i hear you but you're talking -- you're looking, again, off of the romney website here's what it says. you say repeal obama care will

save you $95 billion. you say privatize amtrak will save $1.6 billion. reduce subsidies for the national endowment of the arts and humanities, you know, cut subsidies for pbs, that will save you $600 million. eliminate title x family planning funding, $300 million reduce foreign aid, $100 million. empower -- reduce waste and fraud, i can go on and on. all that doesn't add up anywhere near $500 billion. so where are the specifics? >> well, it's -- >> of how you're going to get to that magic $500 billion number in 2016. >> soledad it's a whole lot more specific than the obama plan which is zero. he had the ability to take the plan that was given by the simpson-bowles commission and basically threw it in the trash. there's no plan we've got currently to reduce this crushing deficit. the president's added $6 trillion to the american debt that our kids and our grandkids are paying. so i think what governor romney said is here's a list of things

that are the types of things that i will cut. and i will get to that point because you can't add a tral and a half a year to the national debt and expect america is going to stay strong. it's not happening. and this president's had no guts and no courage to do that. hasn't got a budget done in 3 1/2 years. so governor romney has outlined a number of specifics and there's more to come. >> but you understand that voters are frustrated and regardless of what the question is, and this happens on both sides of the aisle, the minute you ask any kind of questions about specifics about someone's plan they immediately say well the other guy -- so let's not talk about the other guy for a moment. let's talk about the specifics. and it sounds to me that there are still light on specifics. i mean again i'm trying to figure out, will you take what paul ryan, who actually was known for his very detailed plans, you know, food stamps, programs like that, 16%, cut transportation by 25%, cut general science space and technology by 6%, cut education, training employment, 33%, all that over ten years, i should

mention, will you take that plan? is that going, those specifics, will that be part of the romney plan? yes or no? >> well, i said -- well the ryan plan is a very good start. but it's not enough, because we're broke, soledad. and that's the truth that the american people have got to look at. $16 trillion in debt. the ryan plan, at least paul ryan has the guts to outline a plan that will start to reduce the deficit. it will balance the budget in 28 years. the president has no plan. so look, you can't just isolate that in just about the romney plan. you've got to look at what the president's saying, which is essentially, just raise taxes on people that are successful. that's not a very good plan, so, yes, i think paul ryan's outlined a bold plan. it's going to require sacrifice. he's got the honesty to tell people that we can't afford this same level of spending. and until we start managing the government's money like people manage their own money, and businesses manage their money, we're in trouble. >> okay. let's talk a little bit about this tape that was leaked, and

the specifically the 47% comment. how, how, let's, let's play that first, what, what governor romney is heard saying on this tape, then i'll ask you a question about it on the other side. >> okay. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. all right. there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has responsibility to care for them, who believe that they're entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. but that's an entitlement and government should give it to them. and they will vote for this president no matter what. these are people who pay no income taxes. so my job is not to worry about those people. i'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. >> how do you spin that? how do you -- how do you -- how do you defend that? >> i think he was saying factually 47% of the people don't pay income tax. now they do pay social security and medicare tax, and other types of taxes.

>> i meant the victims part. i meant the victims part. >> well, i think the president -- governor romney has already said what he's had to say about that. i haven't seen the tape. what i will say is that to the degree that we have people that aren't paying taxes because of a lousy obama economy, because 23 million americans can't work, soledad, i think that's the broader point. and a record number of people on food stamps. you can't spin that as good for the american people, and so i think a president that's got the ideas about how to get people back to work and put more people back on the tax rolls, that's a good thing. there's no way to spin the fact that 43 months of 8% unemployment is a bad thing for america. >> i will completely agree. but i think the -- i completely agree that that number is hard to spin. but i'm telling you, i think it's hard to also spin that you just called half the country or the governor did in this tape, roughly half the country victims. people who feel entitled to help, to food and to housing, and to health care, which i think people would debate. the entitlement to food?

isn't that a tough message for half the country, that you're hoping some of them will vote for you? >> yeah, and i think governor romney has explained that, and so he's -- he didn't explain that right, didn't say it right at all. he was giving the fact that about 46.4% of the people currently don't pay taxes. but listen, we've got a president you know when he was campaigning said, criticizing americans for clinging to their god and their guns. i mean, there are things that have to be -- have to be clarified when you get into these campaigns. but the broader point is the economy stinks, soledad. you know it and i know it. >> i don't think anyone's going to argue with that -- >> the president's failed and we're not on the right track. >> but some of the -- >> that's the case for romney. >> but some of that 47% is people who are in their 80s who've retired, right? they paid income tax the whole time. some of them are students who don't make any money so they're not making income tax. >> that's right. >> potentially romney voters who, who now are going to be feel like they're they've been

insulted by these comments. >> well, i mean agree. that 47% you really do have to dig behind the numbers. whether it's bush tax credits or whether people on social security who have already paid their dues and others, there's a lot more behind that. but to the degree that some of the facts that we have that many taxpayers not paying taxes are due to people that can't work, have no access to the american dream, that's a crisis for america that both parties should be ashamed of, and we have to work harder to get people back to work. and i think hopefully that's the broader point. it's not a good idea to have the highest level of food stamps and the lowest level of entrepreneurs in 30 years. that's not good for america. and so, i think it's an honest debate now about how do we get people back to work? the president said he believes in redistribution of wealth. he's on tape saying that, as well. i don't think that's a good policy for america. so i think it's all being clarified during the debates. and people make the choice about who's got the better vision for america. >> governor bob mcdonnell i know you have to run, you've got

another event. we're going to let you go. he's a romney campaign surrogate. we certainly appreciate your time this morning. >> okay, thanks, soledad. >> we're going to talk more later about the redistribution of wealth comments on our program this morning. anyway, want to get back to the space shuttle endeavor which is finally lifting off, about to lift off for the final time. we've been watching it now -- >> john zarrella told us before you see it sitting on top of that specially designed 747 which has flown for 30 years all over the country. this flight taking "endeavour" all the way to los angeles will also be the final flight for the specially designed 747. so it's a really special moment for that, too. >> 25 flights in orbit, over 20 years, pretty amazing. and it's -- i think are expected to do flyovers, right? so everyone will have a chance to see it? >> it is all the way to los angeles a really special route. taking it over mississippi and texas, and everywhere around the country that helped put the shuttles together over so many years. >> i have found it so amazing,

and especially if you have a chance to watch it with your kids, because there's something about just watching space travel with your kids, and remarkable. but as we sit here we watch them on the tarmac the good news is the weather is good and it looks like it's going to be taking off momentarily as we have been promised. we'll continue to watch it. let's listen in and dip in to what nasa is saying. >> it will be a majestic sight to see. >> this is shots from cape canaveral in florida where we are waiting for "endeavour" to make its final flight, three-day cross country tour. >> shows a special place for all of the remaining shuttle to stay, for people to see in museums around the country, of course. one of them being the enterprise

here at the "uss intrepid" a museum in manhattan. there's a shuttle at the smithsonian air and space museum in washington and this going to los angeles so people can visit the "endeavour" for years and years to come. >> we're going to continue to watch it. although as you sit and watch it on the tarmac there is nothing happening and we're waiting for them to take off. >> the pilot saying we're sixth in line for takeoff right now on the ground at kennedy space center in florida. >> they had several days of weather delays for the "endeavour" and eventually gave them the go-ahead today because the weather, of course, is looking pretty good. they're going to do this cross-country flight from the kennedy space center. that's where you're looking at these shots from, then fly to los angeles, and as you mentioned, it's going to be on display in los angeles. they were supposed to take off at 7:15 so now they're running about, almost five minutes late.

and part of that reason is because of the weather. obviously in florida, you're constantly dealing with these intermittent showers, et cetera, so that's a little bit of a problem. you see that the endeavor is piggybacked on that modified 747 so, they're a little bit concerned about the delays. but it looks like we're expecting this thing to take off any moment. >> one interesting thing john zarrella brought up, it lands in los angeles, it will stay at the airport for awhile then it has to be towed miles, about 13 miles to the museum. this will be towed right through the streets of los angeles to get there. this is an amazing sight as it takes off in florida. but that will be a pretty amazing sight on the streets of los angeles. >> they had said that social media users are encouraged to share their "endeavour" sightings and they told people to use the hash tag #spottheshuttle. to connect as they spot the shuttle over its three-day journey. on wednesday i guess they're going to go to houston.

flyovers, florida space coast stennis space center in mississippi, and also they'll fly over in new orleans. so that's going to happen today. those are some of the locations that they're going to go over today, as soon as it takes off. of course we continue to monitor "endeavour's" final flight. but it continues to sit on the tarmac. a little more than five minutes delayed they were hoping to take off at 7:15 eastern time. we're going to continue to monitor and obviously we're really excited to watch the "endeavour" which is piggybacked there on at 747 takeoff and as soon as that happens we will bring it to you as it happens. we've got to take a commercial break first. we're back in just a moment. >> and we have first motion the shuttle carrier aircraft and space shuttle "endeavour" beginning to thunder down,

shutting landing facility runway 1-5. heading to the southeast, taking to the skies for one last time. from kennedy space center. and wheels up, and officially at 7:22 a.m. eastern daylight time. space shuttle "endeavour" soaring atop nasa shuttle carrier aircraft, about to begin

a 20-minute flyover of the space coast area. >> that is so beautiful to watch, isn't it? at 7:22, just seven minutes after they had planned, it's taken off. i'm glad we didn't toss to commercial break right before it started its roll down the tarmac. the runway. >> amazing. >> it looks beautiful. we're going to obviously watch this as it takes off, take a short break and we'll be back right on the other side. >> turn toward the coast, conduct a flyover of kennedy space center, cape canaveral air force station, and then head south down the beach. where onlookers are gathered. nasa television will cover this

entire flyover as best we can. the shuttle and the shuttle carrier aircraft will head to the south, and out of range of our cameras, but then will come back toward kennedy space center for one final pass over the shuttle landing facility in about 20 minutes. i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ]

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good morning welcome back to "starting point" i'm christine romans, minding your business this morning. u.s. stock futures are up after the bank of japan announced more stimulus overnight. this follows the federal reserve stimulus announcement last week. the s&p 500 index is up more than 14% so far this year. new data released by real estate tracking firm zillow shows home prices dipped in august from the previous month but home prices according to zillow, still up 1.7% from a year ago. foreclosures fell in august, with 6 out of every 10,000 homes in the country in some stage of foreclosure. that is down from 6.4 homes out

of every 10,000 back in july. american airlines is cutting 1% to 2% of its flights for the rest of september and into october. and the company announced this week that 11,000 workers could lose their jobs as part of the reorganization plans. american is in bankruptcy. the pilots are staging sickouts to protest impending job cuts. >> all right, christine, thank you. french officials are pleading for restraint and beefing up security at many embassies after parrist magazine which is known for its biting satire published cartoons depicting the prophet muhammad. all this coming at a time when muslims around the world are rioting over an anti-islam movie produced here in the united states. let's get live to jim bittermann live in paris for us this morning. the last of the charlie ebdou magazine, the last time they did something like this, they were the victims of a fire-bombing. so what's behind it this time? >> well that was back in november of last year, this time around it's about the same sort

of thing. this magazine is meant to be provocative and always publishes very nasty, daring cartoons. people who buy it look for that, and that's who their audience is. basically in this same edition was the cartoons that have lessed all the objections amongst the muslim community here. there's also cartoons that make fun of rape victims, that make fun of the catholic church, there's just a panoply of rather daring cartoons and that's what the magazine makes its money from. in one of the cartoonists of the magazine said he was almost surprised at the way there's been such outcry over this morning's edition. >> so then jim let me ask you a question, because obviously we're not going to air, we're not going to show the cartoons. we've seen them. >> not going to show the cartoonist, either. what specifically? well they're very provocative. i mean, you know, they're, they're, they're sort of caricatures of muhammad in

various stages of undres, in various awkward, obscene poses, that sort of thing with cartoon lines on them that insult the idea of people's insensitivities. basically the magazine tries to skewer the headlines. the things we hear about in the news they take on and they try to make fun of in a very sort of daring way. and that's what they've done in this case, with the outcry over the film that the kind of thing that the attack of the embassy in libya and other places. that's what they're trying to make fun of. it's always in bad taste. that's what the magazine is known for. and their argument has been that, look, you know, you don't have to buy this magazine. there's nothing on the cover that is insulting, and so it's basically the people that buy it that have the privilege, if that's what you want to call it, of seeing these insulting

cartoons. of course, the islamic community here is totally upset. islam is the second most important religion in france, and there's been quite an outcry, and they have said that they are going to take the magazine to court if there's anything, any law that has been broken. >> jim bittermann in paris. thank you. still ahead this morning on "starting point," many critics say that mitt romney's statement where he called half of america roughly victims is a major blunder. our next guest says no, this could really help his campaign. we're going to talk with redstate.com's erick erickson. also we told you about this yesterday, that baseball player who put a slur on his eye black during a game. learning more about what his thoughts were behind that, and also the punishment that we were expecting. [ laughing ] [ laughing ]

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expected to arrive in southern california friday. it's been delayed for two days by bad weather. but now a beautiful picture for a lot of the country to see. elsewhere, after an investigation lasting 19 months the justice department inspector general is expected to release a report on a botched fast and furious gun trafficking operation, possibly as early as today. the republican-led house voted in june to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt for withholding documents in this case. family members of u.s. border patrol agent brian terry, killed in connection with the gun smuggling operation, they have said they will not find closure until someone is held accountable. new york city police are asking for the public's help to track down a group of brazen laundromat thieves. they say four suspects, two men and two women, assaulted a man inside this bronx laundromat before cleaning out the cash register and fleeing the scene. the nypd says anyone who recognized the assailants on the surveillance tape, please call the crime stoppers hotline. in toronto the blue jays suspend short stop yunel escobar

for three games without pay. we talked about it yesterday. he was spotted on saturday's game wearing eyeglasses with a spanish homophobic slur underneath his eyes. eye black is the stuff baseball players use to reduce the sun glare. the salary will be donated to the groups you can play. baseball is investigating the stunt. escobar said he's sorry for his actions. didn't have much of an explanation but he said he's sorry. >> why? why would you write a slur? you don't think people are going to notice that? >> he thought people would notice. doesn't answer the question why. >> in that press there was no back story. >> he said it's a word tossed around the clubhouse. he didn't mean any offense by it. but i don't know what he meant then. >> it makes no sense. i demand that he come to the show and explain it to us. >> the enterprise, the space shuttle here in new york state. i'm disappointed. you can't get in. you don't get into the space

shuttle. you get to see the outside of the space shuttle. >> private -- >> there's a big long line to look at the nose of a space shuttle. i was like, we're going to get to go in, it's going to be awesome. little disappointing there. >> you should write "enterprise." >> eye black, inside the shuttle. >> open the doors. >> that's at very subtle messaging on the eye black. let me introduce everybody, since we're all chatting. the editor in cheese of buzzby. bridge the siegel former finance director for the kerry presidential campaign. will cain columnist, many republicans are among those who are speaking out against the leaked recordings that we've been playing it this morning, 47% of americans, says mitt romney, in these recordings are, dependent on the government, used the word victims, some conservatives aren't stepping away from him, they're standing by him. some of them think he can seal the deal. one of those is erick erickson.

he's a cnn contributor. explain that to me. how, how do you turn what i think people on the left and the right have said, some using the word like, this ends the campaign, this kills the, the, the race for mitt romney, how do you say that this is a positive, this is a good thing? >> this is so discombobulated for me to be here defending mitt romney. it's just not my natural state. >> try anyway. >> i will put it to you this way. the problem for mitt romney is he was speaking off the cuff, what he thought was an off-record dinner for donors. and he conflated two different things and everyone's merged them together. in his head i don't think he was merging them together. he was talking about, there is a reality that 47% of americans will look for obama, 47 will vote for mitt romney. he went on then to characterize the people he thought would vote for barack obama and saying well hey don't pay income taxes, they're dependent on the government, they're victims. well, the 47% number also equates to people who don't pay income taxes. now i don't think he was

actually talking about all those people. but i don't think it matters. and i don't think it matters because every gallup poll that's ever come out on this question, they've asked it for awhile, most of those people don't think that mitt romney would be talking about them. they don't consider themselves victims. so you're going to have to explain to these people that mitt romney really does think you're a victim and i think that's a hard sell. the problem, though, for mitt romney is that his campaign hasn't had a policy on this issue. and now he's going to have to pivot and try to come up with a policy. >> erick, this is will cain. i read your post on red state and i see what you're saying no one thinks of themselves as a victim, so there's no political damage. that's a political analysis. here's what bothers me, who is he talking about, this 47%? he seemed to conflate it three groups. those that don't pay taxes, those that are somehow dependent upon the government and those that would vote for barack obama and there is no cohesive group right there that he's talking about that adds up to 47%. what really bothers me in the end, then, is he's just flat wrong.

>> well, i think that's the problem. he was off the cuff. he was at a closed-door meeting. he didn't think he was on the record. even at his press conference later he said he wasn't very articulate. he's going to have to explain that. even conservatives like me who don't think this is as damaging as a lot of people say, have to concede the remark was really inarticulate at best and really dumb. so he's going to have to go out -- >> -- opportunity though to make the case. >> here's the thing. i think. one, when you say 47%, right you're talking about half this country. you've just called half the country victims who don't want to better themselves. like in and of itself i think that's problematic. the other thing he says is people expect these entitlements. and the tone i thought was an interesting tone to listen to in those tapes. and he says entitlements like food, people are entitled to food. so i think even outside of that sheer number that you're talking about, you just insulted half the country. so even if you don't think of yourself as a victim. you're thinking, wow -- >> soledad most of these people, there are a lot of people out there that the media and the

left are both saying oh, well he's insulting all these people. there are a lot of people out there who technically are in the demographic of don't pay income taxes and government benefits who would agree with mitt romney on this issue. and whether it's the gallup poll or the pew poll or what have you, i think he's got to come out now and own the comment. he can't back it up. and he's going to have to announce what exactly he did mean in an articulate way. the problem for mitt romney, frankly, and i say this i realize as a partisan, but when barack obama said you didn't build that he said he was taken out of context and the media fell over backwards to say he was taken out of context. here mitt romney was off the cuff, off the record and everyone wants to take him literally. >> you know, i think people did hold the president i think there was a lot of debate over that comment and people went back and forth on that. and i think that -- >> people -- over that comment when it was pretty clear. >> there are people who believe that they're entitled to health care, to food, to housing. so if you look at, if you break, i think we have a graphic of this. ultimately if you break down that 47%, you know, of the

people who are not paying income tax, and they're not paying payroll tax, you know, a bunch of them are elderly people. is your entire argument is those people will not feel like they've been insulted so it's okay. is that what you're saying? >> i think if you polled senior citizens most of them would contend to agree with mitt romney. they feel like they've paid into the system and they're getting back what they paid in. and there are a lot of people who didn't pay in -- >> that's before what he just said -- before before those comments. all that polling is before those comments. now he's just said there's a bunch of people -- >> going to say romney supporters. >> but around the kitchen table there are a lot of people that have this conversation. >> is there -- is there also an opening here? i mean you said in one of your articles today how many places noted that republicans will actually like this. like this stance, like what he's saying, like romney saying something they see -- they see as stronger in positionwise. is there something here that

he'll win back some of the base that he doesn't? >> look, you've got me defending mitt romney. that's all you need to know. it's a very, very disconcerting thing for me to be doing that. >> but erick, will again, listen, doesn't the fact that you called his comments dumb and i said they're wrong doesn't it ring to you as someone who basically has conservative ideology handed to them in crib sheet form and cliff notes form and says here is how it works and he combine aid bunch of talking points that don't really go together and said yeah, i'll float this 47% out there. >> john mccormick in the weekly standard -- >> john, saying a lot of conservatives don't actually do this as an interested -- and a lot of conservatives think their ideas might be good for a lot more than 53% of people. >> all right we'll see. maybe you'll be brought in to help the campaign. >> now i got to go deal with the panther in my backyard. >> we saw your tweet about that. he's got a panther.

>> an actual panther was in my backyard. >> that's right. forget the tapes. the panther. erick, appreciate your time this morning. former member of the fujis, ran for presidency of haiti. now he's got a new memoir. wyclef jean joins us live. we're back in just a moment.

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♪ >> one of the well-known faces of support for haiti is the musician wyclef jean. he was born in haiti then moved to the united states as a child where he formed the successful band the fujis. he ran for the presidency of haiti. he's got a new memoir out that talks about haiti, talks about his superstar success called purpose, an immigrant story. and wyclef jean is with us this morning. nice to have you. >> thank you, thank you. >> so let's talk a little bit about why your memoir now? was there something that triggered it? because a lot of the stories you tell are from your childhood? why now? >> because i was going to write seven books, and the first one i wanted to start after i was 40, so i've been jotting things

around ever since i got on tour. social media, just wanted to get into who was wyclef jean, because the name actually was more famous than the guy. so i felt like it was time. >> this is book number one. but you want to write seven? >> yes. >> how did you pick that? >> what are the rest of them about? >> my second book is going to be a political spoof. second one w they tried to j. edgar hoover me, my presidential run and how they said i didn't have a five-year residency in haitian law and there is no such law. i will continue to keep helping, but politics is tough. >> no joke. we've been talking about that all morning. your book is very blunt. were there things that you felt you shouldn't talk about or did people say, don't put me in this book? >> no, no, my music is very pure to what i do.

it was very important that the memoir is pure because the stories i go into, there's a lot of people that are going through things that i've been through, have been in groups, relationship, marital affairs, but they're not tough to talk about it. anything i talk about in the book, i talk about in my music. i can take you back to songs that are pertaining to that. >> let's talk about your affair. >> oh, man. i didn't know we were going to talk about my political -- this is a setup. >> listen, come back tomorrow. we'll talk politics. >> mitt romney's big mistake and the fact he's going to lose. >> well, we could talk about that later. there are some republicans who agree with you on that one. let's talk about what you write about. lauren hill. simultaneously dating your now wife. >> yes. >> and also having an affair with your muse, your partner in music, lauren hill. >> yes. yeah. to take you back into time, i was 20 something. started off when i was 18, 19.

every part of the book that i write, i went back to the setting. basically was in the studio every day, recording every day around each other every day. of course, you read these books about marvin gaye and tammy terrell and he would say, no, no, not me. not me. and you throw in that lord of the rings and you fall into that. everyone is focused on the lauren hill part saying, you know, the way that you exposed lauren hill and the stories. but you can go back to even the cover of the source magazine. they put me in the middle. lauren's on the right and it says baby daddy. what happens is through the course of history, someone will document it and say this is what happened. if i don't talk about it, the doctor in the hospital, he saw me in the hospital. like the mom and dad know what happened. someone's going to end up writing it in history. i have to make sure i write the

truth. >> the people who blame you for the breakup of the fugees, that affair. then you get married. so lauren hill, who you're having an affair with, and you continue the affair with. >> yes, yes. >> some people -- she has gone -- had a share of troubles and there are people who said that was the moment where the fugees fell apart and people blame you for that. >> yeah. >> is that fair? >> once again, i can't take my 20s back. i would never take the 20s back. and the people that are blaming me for the breakup, if you all have this score that you all love so much, this score wouldn't have happened without the love triangle of everything that you you're hearing. so inside of the mystery of the score there's always a passionate undertone in it. i don't think that the music would have actually came out like that if we wasn't going through what we were going through. >> this book is so good. what you write about your dad was amazing. that's the toughest part for you to write. everybody should go get it. i'm going to take this as my birthday present today. >> book number two. >> this is book number one.

>> what will book number five be about? >> you have them all mapped out? >> yes, sir. yes, sir. i have one book that's about the chronicles, i take genesis to revelation and break it down. >> you're setting the bar pretty low. >> wyclef jean. the book is qualified "purpose." >> i have to sing happy birthday for you. >> oh, hold on. get your iphone out and record this for me. ♪ happy birthday, soledad happy birthday ♪ >> it's the greatest day of my life. ♪ soledad happy birthday to you happy birthday soledad ♪ >> yes! that was awesome. wyclef, always nice to have you. >> thank you. l my patients about the new pro-health clinical brush from oral-b.

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morning, welcome, everybody. the battle of the tapes. mitt romney is standing by his message after "those people." chicago teachers off the picket lines, back to class after a seven-day strike has come to an end. racing's newest champion. first american to win the indy car title since 2006. ryan hunter ray joins us to talk about his victory. mother/sfather/daughter dan mother/son games banned because of discrimination. "starting point" begins right now. ben smith is the editor in chief because of buzz foeed. will you sing happy birthday to

me like wyclef just did? will cain will sing to me as colu columnist for the blaze.com no? >> what, i'm sorry? >> i thought you would sing for me. >> i can't hear you. what's that? >> are you telling me we have to sing? >> yes, and then you'll run, right? secretly recorded video from a private fund-raiser, mitt romney is not backing down. he said just under half the nation will not vote for him because they're dependent on the government. here he is on fox news, first interview since the tapes were released. listen. >> i'm talking about a perspective of individuals who i'm not likely to get to support me. i recognize that those people, who are not paying income tax are going to say, gosh, this provision that mitt keeps talking about, lowering income tax, that's not going to be real attractive to them. those that are dependent upon government and those that think government's job is to redistribute, i'm not going to get them. >> president obama reacted to it

during an appearance on the late show with david letterman last night. here is what he said. >> i don't know what he was referring to. but i can tell you this. when i won in 2008 47% of the people voted for john mccain. they didn't vote for me. what i said on election night was even though you didn't vote for me, i hear your voices and i'm going to work as hard as i can to be your president. >> mark mcewen is a former 2008 presidential adviser, wrote a new article about the fallout of that video for the daily beast. it's online today. good morning. nice to see you, as always. give me a sense of how bad this is. your article says very, very, very bad. >> happy birthday, soledad. i started off this week. i started off, actually, defending the campaign. this is kind of the post libya

comment. because i remember being in this exact position in september of 2000. we came out of the conventions, gore had a good convention, stepped on our bounce. we were three points down. everybody was firing guns at the campaign, saying we should all be fired. i'm familiar with this condition. and -- but when the tape comment came out, it really gave me pause. when you start cynically writing off half the country as victims, that's not big. that's not presidential. that's not the sort of thing that we want to hear from a president. so, there's a lot of us, i think, who are republicans and independents who have been waiting for a moment, either at the convention, the convention speech, didn't really see it there. maybe it will happen in the debates. but, unfortunately, i'm afraid that this moment of the tapes reveals a side of romney -- we were waiting for a moment of revelation. this, unfortunately, is one. but not the kind we were looking for. >> erick erickson, we were talking to him a little while ago. he said there's a big upside,

that anybody who is reading doom and gloom into this could be completely missing the point. i'll play for what he said in our interview. >> a lot of people out there technically in the demographic of income taxes and government benefits who would agree with mitt romney on this issue. whether it's the gallup poll or whatever on these issues, he has to come out and own the comment. he can't back it up. he's going to have to explain what exactly he did mean nan articulate way. >> the former governor has not tried to back off the comment. he has really spun it to people who don't -- that there's a lot of people who are not paying their fair share of taxes. is erick erickson right? do you think maybe even the people he's referring to theoretically don't see themselves aas the people he is referring to? >> i watched erick erickson grit his teeth this morning, trying to defend mitt romney. the problem with the number and the problem with this discussion, soledad, is -- and erick referred to this as well.

there are a huge number of that 47% who do not see themselves as dependent and who are not dependent. there are lots of those people who do pay taxes and they're people who don't see themselves as victims. seniors don't see themselves as victims. veterans don't see themselves as victims. this whole notion of painting a broad swath of the american electorate as victims is highly problematic. so, you know, it's getting later and later in the game. and, you know, it's just getting more difficult to defend mitt romney for people like erick erickson and me to come out and defend this kind of behavior and these kind of statements. and it's getting harder and harder to support them. >> mitt romney has said it was inarticulate, not well said. and other republicans have come out and said that exact same thing. if you were advising him for his campaign, does he have to go further than that? does he have to move off of it's just inarticulate? what would you tell him to do? >> well, this is where i depart

from erick and others on the doubling down strategy. you know, i want a moment of revelation about what mitt romney's heart really is and what does he really believe? what is his plan for the least among us? you know, what -- other than considering -- does he really think that these people are victims? because, you know, i want to see a true sense of had his character in something greater in terms of his vision, what he would do as president. so my view is that there needs to be some sort of moment, some speech or some moment in the debate where we get a broader sense of does he care about this 47% and what would he do for the 47% as president? we know what he would do for the 53%. what about the rest of america? >> let's set aside the 47% for a moment. is there a problem in this country of growing dependency on the government? >> well, i think there is. i think part of the reason we have that problem is we've got an economic decline.

>> right. >> we've got huge -- not just decline. we've got a catastrophe out there. that's why we have more dependency. we do need policies that get us out of dependency. >> how would you help mitt romney shape this message? there's a kernel of truth in what he said. there's a sentiment inside of what he said is correct. what he did wrong is use the 47% of number, the number of people that don't pay taxes, that get a government check, percentage of households and the percentage of people that are already going to vote for barack obama. he conflayed all these groups, which was wrong, but the sentiment was not wrong. how do you fix that? >> exactly right. i think part of the way you fix that is to talk about some of the things that romney is actually for that he hasn't talked enough about. for example, means testing. why not talk about the fact that romney supports the idea of means testing? i believe he supports it, for some entitlement programs.

why not say those of us who have done well can and should give something back and if we have enough money at the end of our lives or later years of our lives, we don't need to take as much from the government. we don't need to be as dependent if we have more money. that's the kind of message he should be communicating. >> isn't this what you got? you guys are looking for a sentiment or that moment of truth of romney. isn't that what you got? you got this sentiment, that he thinks 47% of the country or half of the country -- >> that's the point. when you make a strong statement, you better make sure your facts are right, that you've got it correct. he just didn't get it correct. >> listen to what bridget is say i ing. you're saying, will, he conflated, took all these statistics and mixed them up. bridget is saying no, you heard from his heart and he thinks half the country is dependent. mark, you're saying at some point we need to hear in a more articulate way, possibly, which is true? which is the real mitt romney, if he expects people to vote for him. is that kind of the point? am i getting that right? >> that's exactly right. i think people are confused.

obviously, we're all confused. if we're confused you can imagine a lot of your viewers, a lot of voters are as well. >> mike mckinnon, always nice to have you. thank you for the birthday wash wishes, by the way. that's how you started it. gary lockee, official car surrounded by a group of 50 protesters outside the u.s. embassy in beijing, some throwing cups at the vehicle and jumping all over it. the car was damaged but the ambassador was not hurt. chinese security guards were able to step in and help protect him. you saw the launch live last hour. space shuttle "endeavour" is high in the sky on its final mission. the retired shuttle took off at 7:22 eastern from the kennedy space center on the back of a nasa career jet, making a cross country tour with a stop in houston today and low flyovers friday. california science center, it

gets to california on friday. more americans say they're feeling optimistic about the economy and the direction of the country, helping to trigger a spike in the polls for president obama. the nbc/wall street journal poll shows the president with a five-point lead over mitt romney over likely voters. it was taken after the two conventions but before romney's 47% comments were released this week. latest cbs/"new york times"/quinnipiac poll has obama 51% in wisconsin, ryan's home state. in colorado, it's essentially tied, 47% to 48%. lots to clean up this morning after a line of powerful storms. heavy rains and winds left thousands of people without power from washington, d.c. to new york. as much as nine inches of rain fell in some places. can we get an arrgh?

>> we are brother and sister up here. >> why are we arrgh'ing this morning? international talk like a pirate this morning. >> is it really? >> racketball players invented the holiday back in '95. >> generations now. >> it's taken off, thank goodness, in social media. >> can i ask a question, is it always celebrated september 19th? >> we'll get our best people on that. >> it's not on the prompter. >> i just want to know, is it every year i'm going to be struggling and fighting with the people for international pirate talking day? >> it's in honor of your birthday. >> i'll give it back. no, thanks. no, thank you. all right. >> there you have it. >> pirates, eye patch, yo-ho-ho. pillage and plunder. >> and we move on. students and teachers are back in the classrooms in

chicago today. we'll take a look at how that strike finally ended in a live report, coming up next. forget about father/daughter dances and mother/son ball games. they've been banned. some say because it's gender discrimination. it's our tough call this morning. do you agree that a fath father/daughter dance is discrimination? >> you want my opinion? >> i'm going to ask your opinion. >> no. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center...

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let's get started at capella.edu welcome back. you're watching "starting point." it's up and at 'em for 350,000 students in the chicago area now. the seven-day strike has been ended, and returning to the class today. both sides are claiming victory in this one. is that even possible? who really won, do you think, kyung? >> reporter: if you take a look at it, soledad, you can't really tell. both sides look like they had to give a little in order to get something. this was the compromised word we heard from both sides, the union and the city. talking to teachers, they said overwhelmingly, they are relieved this is over, anxious to get back into the classroom, saying this is a deal they can live with. here is what one teacher told us. >> everybody is happy to go back to work, get with the kids. it's been long enough.

i think we accomplished what we wanted to. a few people aren't happy. no matter what you do, nobody is going to be completely happy. we've done the best we could. >> reporter: so the teachers come back into the classroom in just about an hour or so. this elementary school, you can see the lights are on already, soledad, and parents will be shuffle i shuffling off their kids just about now in chicago. >> probably so happy to drop those kids back at school. what happens with the seven days they lost? do they just tack that on to the end of the school year? how do they get it back? >> reporter: they're going to try to figure out how they can jam it into what's left of the school year. that's going to be a challenge. that's something that parents say they'll have to work on. the teachers will have to work on it. the entire community will figure out how they're going to get all that time back in with the days that they have left. and, you know, overwhelmingly, we are hearing they're going to be able to do it. they did only lose seven days. >> kyungl lah. one complaint ends

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welcome back to "starting point." i'm christine romanss. the bank of japan announced more stimulus. this follows the federal reserves announcement of a stimulus. fedex is warning, it says global economic growth is stalling. it's going to get worse next year. company companies like fedex are bellwethers for earnings and certainly have the pulse on global growth. the debt crisis in europe affecting demand for chinese exports and fuel slowing down global trade. home prices dipped in august from the previous month but they're still up 1.7% from a year ago. foreclosures fell in august. this is good news. six out of every 10,000 homes in

the country are in some stage of foreclosure. that's down from 6.4 out of every 10,000 in july. report on existing home sales in august is due at 10:00 am eastern. soledad? >> christine, thank you. you can forget about father/daughter dances and mother/son ball games certainly in cranston, rhode island. the aclu says those events violate the state's gender discrimination laws. public schools have no business fostering the notion that girls prefer to go to formal dances, boys prefer baseball games this type of gender stereotyping only perpetuates swroutdated notions of girl and boy activities and is contrary to federal law. is this about gender discrimination? you're practically laughing. >> that statement was just trolling will cain, with the boy and girl in quotes there. >> i think, as we were saying before, soledad, there's a logic to t a lot of kids do not have a

mother, do not have a father, who obviously may not -- who put in tough decisions. >> sensitivity. not necessarily gender discrimination. teachers should know what the situation is in their own classroom. whole generation of people came up going to the mom prom, boys go to the dance with their moms. >> so it's less about gender discrimination and sort of the legality of it? and to me about gender stereotyping is what the aclu seems to say. why is it that girls go to dances and boys go to -- why wouldn't a girl want to go to a baseball game? >> well, i mean -- >> what? yes, what? >> you're bowing to sensitivity f to such a degree that you're ending it. >> why are you ending it? >> offering exclusivivity. >> so any parent/child dance? >> call it the father/daughter

dance and allow people to do it in days that don't traditionally. >> so your father is dead and you don't have a father. it may be excluding. >> or two moms. >> are you kidding me? kids are excluded from the father/daughter dance? >> they don't have fathers so they're not going to the the father/daughter dance. >> i would be shocked if there are teachers and principals turning kids away. i would be shocked. >> here is the thing. i think alcu has an interesting point on this. which is why assume that boys want to do baseball? why not assume girls might want to go to baseball games and a dance could be fun to not only have dads and daughters but take your son. everybody might want to go to a dance. why not say, hey, we're having a dance. it's open to everybody. >> like the mom prom. that happened in the midwest where the boys and moms would go to a dinner and dance together. it wasn't just father/daughter dances. they calleded it mom prom. >> or father/daughter dance, mom prom. i don't know. i draw the loine at no cupcakes

at birthday parties at school. i feel that's over the top. >> we don't want to be discouraging people to being doing things with their kids because we need more of it. >> that's what i meant to say. christine, thank you. >> let's talk of things in deeper exploration. >> will cain admitting? >> no, no, the level of my disagreement is so deep that i can't get into it right now. >> i'll take that as a win. >> did jesus have a wife? we're revisiting it again. details on a new historical finding to share with you. fight over facebook turned into, became part of an oscar-nominated movie. the winklevoss twins are getting into social networking without mark zuckerberg. here they are. we're back in a moment. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit.

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welcome back, everybody. we begin with john berman, who has the headlines. after a weekly magazine known for its biting sa tire published cartoons predicting the prophet muhammad this morning. so far, no fallout. last november the same magazine published cartoons of the prophet muhammad and its paris office was destroyed by a firebomb. inspector general is expected to release a report on the fast and furious gun trafficking violation, that report coming as early as today.

republican led house voted in june to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt for withholding documents in this case. family and friends have said they won't have closure until someone is held accountable for his death. clearing the way for police in arizona to enforce the most controversial part of its new immigration law. u.s. district judge susan bolton tuesday upheld the section that allows people to question immigration status while enforcing other laws. back in june, the supreme court tossed out most other aspects of the law but let the so-called "show me your papers" provision stand. and did jesus have a wife? historian at harvard dwinity school says she's identified a rare fourth century religious text, a scrap written in coptic. jesus said to them "my wife." the scholar knows that this

isn't evidence that he was married but that early chris yns may have believed he was. >> that is so interesting. let's talk with the winklevoss twins, getting back into social networking. you may remember that they claimed facebook was their idea, and sued mark zuckerberg over that. the whole situation was chronicled in the movie. >> we know he stole our idea and lied to our faces for a month and a half. >> he never lied to our faces. >> fine. he lied to our e-mail accounts and gave himself a 42-day head start, because he knows. >> i'm a competitive racer. i don't think you need to school me on the importance of getting there first. thank you. >> this time, their first, making an adventure. you're all in that clip. it's funny to watch your faces while that clip is playing. did you think that that was -- the movie was an accurate portrayal? was it weird to see yourselves portrayed? >> a little is yourreal, i think. the movie was factual and based on real-life events.

of course, it's not a complete collection of the fact. it's a movie. but it's very much a true story. >> you got a big payout, $65 million or so of which 45 was in facebook stock. and some of that money you're putting into this new -- i all it new because your investment is new, actual social network, sumzero is not new. explain to me what the social network is. >> i used to work at a hedge fund and at the time i realized there was a problem with finding high-quality information on various investments, stocks, bonds, what have you. it seemed like it would be useful to have a community setup where investors could share their research. when i say professional, i'm referring to hedge fund analysts, private equity guys, people who do fundament al research, rigorous research all day. at the time, nothing of the sort existed. so in 2008, me and another college friend of mine created a site called sumzero that enabled these investors to share their

research. >> you have put $1 million of your money into this. tell me, why do you think this is such a great deal? and why can't all those hedge fund investors just talk to each other? what has it done? this is a way to keep other people out, obviously. you have to be a member. i can't just dip in and listen in on this conversation, right? >> you can, actual ly. we started the site as being solely dedicated to professional investors, but as the company evolved, we've enabled nonprofessionals to sort of access small windows of the conversation. so even as an individual investor, you can join our newsletter or headlines page and you can still see sort of what are the professionals talking about? >> why did you invest $1 million in this company? >> we believe in the product and the team. it's unique, first time alternative to cell side research. we felt there was a distinct value proposition there. >> is that value proposition something that's going to make

sumze sumzero as big as facebook or even half as big of facebook. >> it's not really a competitor of facebook in that sense. it changes the way investors look at investing in he cequiti and other places. so, yeah, i think it's never going to have probably a million members. that's not really the goal. it's the quantity game of getting that research together and then giving retail investors and everybody else a window into that world, which they otherwise would not have. >> outside it's giving the people into that world. aren't these investors already meeting together? aren't those things happening in the real world, you're just moving it online? >> if it wasn't, there would be less of an opportunity. it happens over the phone, at idea dinners, at conferences. if you're an analyst in the u.s. and let's say you're interested in learning more about a company that maybe is in malaysia or some other country you're not going to have somebody probably within your personal network that covers that company. being able to go online and do a

quick search makes your investment process that much ea easier so you don't necessarily have to spend money to travel across the globe to find -- to get initial information about a company to understand whether it's worth putting more time and research into. >> is this free? >> it can be. >> no. >> how unfree is it? >> there's a newsletter that's free for everyone. if you're a byside analyst you can sign on for free. >> for other people it's a membership fee? >> the core community is free for people who want news and sort of basic insight into what's going on in the commun y community. there's a news page, essentially a blog. that's totally free. but if you're looking for more detail than would be available to just anyone, you do have to pay. >> and you should be a hedge fund manager, too? you have to be in the business? >> not necessarily. >> subscribe to some of the research. >> people who contribute content don't pay. because they're actually contributing ideas. the people who can't contribute

content because we don't let them into the core community, they would have to pay. >> did you sell your facebook stock? >> we choose not to talk about settlement. >> is that a yes or a no? >> that's a plead the fifth. >> interesting. interesting. thanks for talking to us about sumzero. maybe you'll get a billion followers. could happen. thanks for coming. >> depending on who becomes the president of the united states, what will be the future of the military? barbara starr will join us to take a look at obama's plan and mitt romney's plan. issues 2012 right after this. glucerna hunger smart shakes.s they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

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welcome back. the focus this morning in the decision 2012 is the military. barbara starr takes a look. >> reporter: how many troops and what weapons are needed to defend the nation? president obama and governor mitt romney each are making a different case. governor romney has said he wants to significantly add to our conventional forces. >> we must have a commitment, not just to more ships and more aircraft, but also, in my view, to more members of our armed forces. >> president obama wants a smaller conventional force and $500 billion in pentagon spending cuts over the next ten years. >> and so long as i'm commander in chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known. >> reporter: let's start with the romney plan.

the candidate says he favors a larger force of naval ships and aircraft, but has not said how he would pay for it. romney has also said he wants to add 100,000 troops to the current force of 1.4 million. now for a look at obama's plan. as part of $500 billion in spending cuts, president obama says he wants to get rid of older ships and delay buying new ones. he also proposes cutting the army by some 66,000 and reducing the marine corps by another 20,000. obama envisions continuing use of small special forces teams and unmanned drones, a signature weapon of the last decade. but romney's surrogate and former dod comptroller says not so fast. >> there's no ideological objection at all to having drones, unmanned aerial vehicle,

unmanned sub surface vehicles, all kinds of unmanned vehicles. the issue is to what extent do you rely almost exclusively on drones and on special forces? >> reporter: for president obama, secret cia drone attacks against militants in pakistan and yemen have had results without risking putting u.s. troops on the ground. he told cnn's jessica yellin. >> it has to be a situation in which we can't kcapture the individual, before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the united states. >> i don't think whether obama or romney wins we're going to see this technology go away or any greater minimized use of it because of their own approach. i think we've seen that president obama's most definitely willing to utilize these, a signature part of his counterterrorism agenda and it would be very hard for romney to roll that back, even if he wanted to.

>> reporter: but no matter who is in the oval office, obama or romney, the bigger problem with this drone issue may be the international pushback from governments and human rights groups that increasingly are voicing their objections. soledad? >> barbara starr. thanks for that report. coming up next on "starting point," ryan hunter reay joins us next. there he is. human behavior and how humans are different and traps late that into social policy, how we are running the it. i'm david eagleman. there will be a crime committed like the oklahoma city bombing shooting or the columbine

shooting. at some point that will happen and then society will have to deal with this very difficult question about this relationship between brain and behavior and this question of culpability. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

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and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org indy car racing has a new champion, ryan hunter reay won the championship last weekend after the point leader crashed. the first american to win the indy car title since 2006. and this is what you won. nice to have you with us. >> this is the aster challenge cup. not only massive but super, super heavy. tell me a little bit about how you're feeling now that you've walked away the winner with this tremendous honor. >> first of all, the whole situation is a dream come true. i've been an indy car fan since i was 6 years old. to win the indy car

championship, i can't still comprehend it. isn't this cup beautiful? aster cup. >> stutz car gil anderson, average speed 102.6 per hour. what was your average speed when you were racing? >> at indianapolis this year, for example, we qualified somewhere in the range of 225 miles an hour, average. >> kind of blown away gil anderson's record in 1915. as the point leader crashed, you won. when did you realize that's it, it's done? i'm going to win this thing. >> the team gained the points lead earlier in the season and we lost it because of some bad luck, you know, with a few races to go. who are we come down to the last race of fontana, 17-point margin. once will crashed we actually still had to finish up a time. we were 13th in the race. we still had to finish fifth to win the championship. so there was a lot of work to be

done still. it was a 500-mile race. grueling race, edge of your seat the whole time. we pulled it off by three points. >> soledad? soledad? >> where are you? >> can i ask ryan a question? you had to finish fifth in that final race to win the points championship. you finished fourth. now what i read is you were running out of gas, right, toward the end of the race? you had to back off a little bit. how did you time it just right to finish and make sure you were going to finish in the top five? >> so many factors lined up. the temperatures were really hot. you know, 103 degrees is what we saw. and the engines were really hot. chevy just delivered. the engine was overheating and it still gave me full power the entire time. at the end of the race we were running low on fuel. just the nerves involved in the whole thing and how much can go wrong. it was unreal to bring it home like that. and bring the championship back to the u.s. >> why are americans underdogs when it comes to this?

>> it's a very diverse series. drivers, top talent from around the world. we race on all types of different tracks. indy car is the only series in the world that races on street circuits, race cowerses, short ovals, super speedways. to win a championship a team certainly has to be very -- certainly very diverse. >> mario andretti predicted you to win. the famous mario andretti takes you aside and says -- >> mario and michael both are legends. to drive for them, to drive for michael, it's an honor. you get to actually pick their brains and understand what made them champions and where their mind-set is, in such an important race. you have to be mentally prepared to go to battle for almost four hours at 220 miles an hour. it takes a certain mind-set. i definitely got some advice from the best. >> the trophy is absolutely gorgeous. are you just going to carry this

around new york city with you? >> i plan on doing that. >> we think that's a good idea. you deserve this. nice to have you this morning. >> thank you so much for having me. >> ryan hunter reay is our guest. "starting point" is back in a moment. ♪

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♪ happy birthday soledad

>> this is the best day of my life. ♪ happy birthday to you happy birthday soledad ♪ >> oh, yes! wyclef, yes. >> to let the viewers know, you've been fighting this tooth and nail. there's a cake for soledad's birthday. she turned 27 today. >> 24. >> excuse me. >> two. 19. >> we don't do things halfway. you got wyclef jean and a cake on your birthday. >> yes. and i'm going to be 26 tomorrow. no, i'm kidding. got to take a break for the show. tomorrow on "starting point" elijah cummings, congressman, will have reaction to that fast about furious report we're expecting to come out today and howard schultz, ceo of starbucks will talk about his home coffee machine. millions of dollars at stake. we'll talk about that. and pastor joel olsteen will join us. >> do you know han